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Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, addresses the annual fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore Nov. 11. Bishop Murry was elected to succeed himself as secretary of the conference, a post he has held since last November. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)

Catholic News Service has the most complete coverage of the U.S. bishops’ fall general meeting. You can find the majority of our stories here.

The U.S. bishops chose the Revised Grail Psalter produced by the monks of Conception Abbey in Missouri over the Revised New American Bible translation of the Book of Psalms for liturgical use in the United States.

Fears about laws and changes in regulations on abortion that might advance under a new Democratic-run Congress and White House are the central focus of a statement approved by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 12 during their annual fall meeting in Baltimore.

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development cut off funding earlier this year to the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, known as ACORN, for reasons unrelated to the organization’s current troubles over voter registration and partisan politics, reported the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ subcommittee on CCHD.

Despite some continued criticism that the translation is plagued by obscure wording and sentences that are too long, the U.S. bishops approved another lengthy section of the English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal Nov. 11.

Several pro-life groups held a candlelight vigil Nov. 11 near the Baltimore hotel where the U.S. bishops were conducting their fall general assembly, protesting statements made by some Catholic leaders who called the victorious campaign of President-elect Barack Obama a step forward in stamping out racism.

After a total of nearly three hours of discussion in public and private sessions Nov. 11 during their annual fall meeting, the bishops gave their president, Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George, a set of concerns about abortion and other matters to raise in a public statement he will issue on their behalf. The statement was to be completed for final approval Nov. 12.

The November 12 piece, “Bishops choose Revised
Grail Psalter for liturgical use in U.S.” (http://tinyurl.com/6e7dya), is inaccurate when it superficially refers to the Liturgy of the Hours as “the daily prayers that bishops, priests and deacons are required to pray daily.”

Never mind the redundant “daily.” The Liturgy of the Hours is not a priests-only prayer.

According to the General Instruction for the Liturgy of the Hours, it is “the prayer of the Church for all the people of God – bishops, priests, deacons, religious and the laity.” This outdated notion of the Liturgy of the Hours as a “priests’ prayer” is they very thing
Pope Paul VI tried to eliminate when the Liturgy was reorganized to make it more available to Catholic laity in the first place. Yes, ordained and professed vocations have a canonical duty to recite this prayer, but it is a liturgy that all Catholics are meant… and encouraged to join. Ideally, all Catholics would partake regularly in our two great liturgies: the Mass at least weekly, and the daily Liturgy of the Hours as possible.

As the article sated, one of the advantages to the newly approved Grail Psalter for Mass is its familiarity to those praying the Liturgy of the Hours. But the implied significance of that ISN’T that it’s easier for presiders, but rather that ALL Catholics praying the Liturgy of the Hours (as it’s recommended we do) will find greater consonance between our daily prayers and the prayers we say together each week at mass!

Early Christians followed the Jewish practice of stopping to pray morning, noon and night. Christian monks helped bring order to these prayers by
organizing them into hours assigned to the psalter. Then, when literacy declined, popular devotions like the rosary (150 beads = 150 psalms) and the Angelus (bells morning noon and night) were encouraged to give people ways to join themselves to the prayers as they were being prayed in the monasteries, even if they couldn’t read the psalms themselves.

Speaking beyond journalistic objectivity, all the people of God ARE part of this prayer at all times, since it is being prayed constantly in all parts of the world at
every hour on everyone’s behalf by all who recite it.

That’s pretty much it. Unlike some other years when the bishops met until noon Thursday, the portion of the meeting open to observers and reporters concluded around 6:20 Tuesday evening. We sent our subscribing publications an end-of-the-meeting roundup on Wednesday, but we don’t put every story of ours on this portion of our Web site.